The U.S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies in late New York trading on Thursday as investors feared that Greece debt problems can not be solved and data showed that U.S. jobless claims fell last week.
The disagreement between the European Central Bank and Germany on how to bail out Greece dragged the euro down by nearly 2 percent on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the ongoing strike in Greece also hurt investors' confidence in the euro's stability.
However, the International Monetary Fund said it will continue to support Greece if Athens continues its economic reforms. Also, European Union economics commissioner Olli Rehn expressed his confidence that the eurozone would agree to pay the next installment of loans to Greece this weekend.
The euro pared losses against the greenback after the news in late trading session.
Meanwhile, U.S. economic data showed signs of recovery on Thursday. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims last week fell by 16,000 to 414,000. Another separate report released by the Commerce Department showed housing starts rose 3.5 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units, reversing a steep decline in April.
The upbeat economic data lifted the dollar as it rose against the British pound and the Canadian dollar in Thursday's trading.
In late Thursday trading, the dollar bought 80.78 yen, comparing with 80.97 late Wednesday, and the euro fell to 1.4141 dollars from 1.4169.
The British pound also fell to 1.6105 dollars from 1.6175. The dollar fell from 0.8534 Swiss francs to 0.8504, but rose to 0.9866 Canadian dollars from 0.9815.
